I recently purchased a refurbished computer running Windows XP. I have been using it at home. Previously, I had not set up any additional user accounts. I had been using the Administrator account as my own user account. But I wanted to set up additional accounts with limited access to resources. I set up an account called James. I had not yet learned how to limit the privileges, so James was an administrator account by default. I was going to change this later. But here is the problem: My Administrator account disappeared. It does not appear as a choice when Windows boots up. Furthermore, when I use James, I have only limited access to my resources. I had installed Microsoft Office, for example, but cannot access those programs. Furthermore, I cannot access all of my user files. What can I do? What happened to my administrator account?1 person needs an answerI do too

Go to User Accounts while in safe mode "Change the way users log on and off" for the original account'

OK, indeed, I restarted in safe mode. My administrator account was there. Now: How do I have my administrator account appear on a regular boot up?

Point well taken. After I solve my immediate problem, I may take action to reinstall my operating system. The problem is I'll have to buy one, because the reinstallation disks did not come with my machine.

It is normal for the built-in administrator user to be hidden once another user account has been created. To access it in normal mode: when you get to the user login screen, hit Ctrl-Alt-Del twice and you will get a screen where you can enter username and password. Put "Administrator" in the user name and its password and then log in. Use the "Users" control panel to add administrator privilege to your own account and you will no longer need the built-in administrator account -- alternatively, create yet another account with administrator privilege.HTH, JW